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Terra Verde – Protecting the Redwoods

The only native range of coastal and giant Sequoia redwood trees in the world is almost exclusively in California, on a narrow strip of land, starting in the Big Sur area and ending just past the Oregon border, and east-west from Sierra mountains to the coast. Ninety-five percent of the ancient coastal redwood forest here, which was previously more than 2 million acres, has been logged, leaving only about 117 acres of redwood forest in the region. The only other redwoods living in their native habitat is a species that was thought to be extinct, but a very small number of trees was discovered in China in the 1940’s. In recent decades, redwoods have been planted in locations around the world, but they are not the ancient forests in native habitat that we have here in California. It’s public knowledge that California redwoods are threatened by logging. But what other threats exist and what can we do to protect them? Joining us today in the studio to discuss these questions are Emily Burns, Director of Science for the Save the Redwoods League and Justin Augustine, Staff Attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. Joining us by phone is Bill Libby, Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley, in the Departments of Conservation and Natural Resources, Forestry, and Genetics.